Talk:World Brain

Questions, 2008

This is one of those topics like Vannevar Bush's 'Memex'-- it's sort of a reference point for computer tech history, but it's not really well understood by most, so it gets misused. I'm trying to sort things out. The fact that Wells had a technological vision of instant, universal access to information using modern tech is not in dispute. It's also hard to deny that this vision has parallels, at least in the abstract, to what we often see in the Internet or in Wikipedia. There's got to be a way to reference this point w/out making a false analogy (or engaging in Wikipedia "masturbation"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.25.45.185 (talk) 11:08, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Dear 65.25.45.185, What do you mean by a false analogy or Wikipedia masturbation? Please elaborate on your desire to "sort things out" with this article. Thanks! Walshga (talk) 04:46, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

That was me (jlg4104). My point is to make sure that we don't throw out the whole idea of analogies between the World Brain concept and the Wikipedia (or Internet) concept, i.e., something like a "universal knowledge repository," just because they're not exactly the same in practice. My sense is that the people behind Wikipedia share something akin to the vision Wells had-- getting as much knowledge as possible at the disposal of as many people as possible. But Wells wanted a team of experts, not just anyone, to write the stuff down. Still, some of the stuff in World Brain continues to sounds eerily like the electromechanical and microfilm version of what Wikipedia has turned out to be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlg4104 (talk • contribs) 16:27, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I fiddled with the first par. a bit and added a short par. at the bottom to account concisely for the comparison to Internet, Wikipedia, etc. Still needs citations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlg4104 (talk • contribs) 14:58, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

A rough chronicle of World Brain (WB)

1940s

WB as a rapid selector of microfilms

1950s

WB as a fancy selector of mechatronics

1960s

WB as a citation web

1970s

WB as a concept map!

1980s

WB as a card deck, encyclopedic!

1990s

WB as a "worldwide network" (sadly misguided as if for advertising!)

2000s

WB as a "world politics" such as copyleft, Pirate Party, and so on and so forth...

--KYPark (talk) 10:05, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

TextNet

Randall Trigg & Mark Weiser (1986).

"TEXTNET: A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling." Transactions on Information Systems (January 1986) 4(1): 1-23. ACM Portal

Abstract

Textnet is a new system for structuring text. The Textnet approach uses one uniform data structure to capture graphlike pools of text, as well as embedded hierarchical structures. By using a semantic network formalism of nodes connected by typed links, the relationships between neighboring pieces of text are made explicit. Also described is our partial implementation of the Textnet approach, which makes use of an object-oriented window/menu-driven user interface. Users peruse the network by moving among object menus or by reading text along a path through the network. In addition, critiquing, reader linking, searching, and jumping are easily accessible operations. Finally, the results of a short trial with users are presented.

Bibliography

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3. BOHNERT, H. G., AND KOCHEN, M. "The automated multilevel encyclopedia as a new mode of scientific communication." In Proceedings of the American Documentation Institute, Oct. 1963, pp. 269-270.
4. BUSH, V. "As we may think." Atlantic Monthly 176, 1 (July 1945), 101-108. Reprinted in: The Growth of Knowledge, M. Kochen, Ed. Wiley, New York, 1967, pp. 23-35.
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--KYPark (talk) 12:57, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

The Fountains of Paradise

Arthur C. Clarke (1979)

Dr Vannevar Morgan	hyperfilament	Chief Engineer 
Dr Vannevar Bush  	hypertext   	Chief Science Officer, as it were

--KYPark (talk) 13:58, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Machine that thinks

• Vannevar Bush (1945). "As we may think: A top US scientist foresees a possible future world in which man-made machines will start to think." Life 19, no 11: 112-114, 116, 118, 123-124.
• Anon. (1945). "A machine that thinks." Time 46:93-94.
• E. C. Berkeley (1949). Giant Brains: or, Machines That Think. New York: Wiley.

The idea of machine that thinks as rapidly or instantly "As We May Think" as noted by Vannevar Bush (1945) may be worth a slogan, symbol or metaphor for cognitivism, computationalism, or "strong AI" focally ascribed to CMU 's Allen Newell and Herbert Simon by UC Berkeley's Hubert Dreyfus. At least Simon is glad to be ascribed to cognitive revolution, which then would better be termed "cognitivist revolution" to be precise, which is essentially fully mechanizing hence dehumanizing! Though to make machinery wise may be as nice as to make mankind wise, both are different enough to make a category mistake if compared headon. The wisest would make both wise in such a multiplying (x or chi) way as human-computer interaction. To claim strong AI is doubtful of wrong HI (human intelligence)! Anyway, the goal of World Brain is not machinery but mankind of wisdom. --KYPark (talk) 16:41, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Before the 1974 information revolution

1950s - From mechanics to electronics

1960s - From key word in titular context to key work in literature context

--KYPark (talk) 09:42, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

After the 1974 information revolution

From Knowledge to Wisdom

Information for Action: From Knowledge to Wisdom (1975) ed. Manfred Kochen the top World Brainist

• He may argue against Vannevar Bush's mechanism and cognitivism, as machines, even of knowledge, have nothing to do with widsom at all.

From information retrieval to inference/reference

Inference/reference as yin/yang

• The inspiration from information retrieval is mostly disguised as information processing model or perspective, while the relevance theory is honest at least.

From mechatronics to cybernetics

From man-like cognitive machine back to man-machine symbiosis

From Mathematical Games to Metamagical Themas

The Mathematical Theory of Communication of Shannon and Weaver (1949) was wished to throw much light on the "theory-thirsty" disciplines, as vehemently cautioned by Colin Cherry (1957) soon after the cognitive revolution (1956) that heavily relied on that theory along with Vannevar Bush's cognitivism (1945), such as "machines that think," which Norbert Wiener (1948) suspected of its infeasibility.

From metadata to text proper

Subtext or hypotext, if you like, and therefore hypertext!

• The hypotext is what is "read between the lines" or texts, hence hypertext!
• None of the three so-called "fathers of hypertext" may understand what hypertext is all about, at all. The oldest father Bush vehemently denied the hierarchy of ideas, whose idea was denied in many many ways!

From literal text(ualism) to lateral context(ualism)

eg., Beyond Culture by Edward T. Hall (1976)

From iteration to interaction

Online interactive Dialog system of Lockheed for information retrieval was rather iterative in practice than "interactive"

--KYPark (talk) 09:42, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Clark on Wells

I cannot find any hits on Clark mentioning Wells' 'World Brain' in Profiles of the Future via Google Books. The citation to it does not contain a page number. I am therefore requesting a quote (with page number) here on talk to verify this claim. Hrafn^Talk_Stalk^(P) 05:07, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Linking of developments to Wells' World Brain

Please do not add material linking technological developments to Wells' World Brain idea, without a WP:RS explicitly making the link. Lacking such a source, such claims are WP:OR. Hrafn^Talk_Stalk^(P) 07:13, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Recent revision and next steps

People will see I have done some copyediting, expanded the synopsis, added a background section, and added some more sources. I took out a long quotation of what to me seemed like mostly pleasantries, and added in some which I thought were more substantial. There are a lot more secondary sources to go through. Some questions and for interested parties:

• Can anyone get articles from VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management? If so, maybe that anyone would like to read World Brain and Mundaneum: the ideas of Wells and Otlet concerning universal access by Georgina Araceli Torres‐Vargas and use it to expand the article.
• I used the ebook from University of Adelaide for quotations in the Synopsis section; these additions therefore lack page numbers. If anyone has a print copy of the book maybe they would like to find the quotations and add in the numbers.
• The above website with the ebook says 'To the best of our knowledge, the text of this work is in the “Public Domain” in Australia.' Can we therefore use images from the book as well? The diagram in Chapter 5 would be useful in illustrating Wells's plan for an education system.
• The lede is untouched as yet but needs rewriting to give a more nuanced summary of Wells's unique spin on the world brain concept.

Cheers, groupuscule (talk) 19:03, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

@Groupuscule: : Aracelli Torres-Vargas' 2005 paper is open-access, so you may download pdf with no peculiar formality. The french version (which I translated mostly from the 2021 english version) is currently being revised and submitted in a "good article" procedure there, so please feel free to upgrade english version as you suggest above, in order for me to implement further improvements in fr:WP. Cheers. Archibald Tuttle (talk) 13:03, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

Greetings, M. Tuttle, thanks for the heads-up and congratulations on the Bon article! I look forward to reading it and perhaps making some further improvements as you suggest. All the best, groupuscule (talk) 20:53, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

New edition from MIT Press

There's a new 2021 edition from MIT Press, with a forward by Bruce Sterling and introduction by me. I've made the intro available for use here. -Reagle (talk) 14:08, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I added it to the "Further reading" section. Biogeographist (talk) 15:27, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

News from Wikipédia (in french)

Hi there, I'm pleased to report here that thanks to user:Racconish's help (including some of the suggestions above) the francophone version of World Brain has been substantially improved recently and eventually accepted as "Good article". There's probably some stuff that might easily help upgrading here in a translinguistic colaborative approach. Cheers Archibald Tuttle (talk) 16:07, 6 November 2023 (UTC)